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12.04.2010
Champion for peace and freedom of the Turks in Turkey
Leyla Zana
Kurdish politician and human rights activist Leyla Zana
A Turkish court sentenced to three years imprisonment the very well-known Kurdish politician and human rights activist Leyla Zana on 8th April 2010 in Diyarbakir for "disseminating terrorist propaganda”. This is the punishment for Leyla Zana having emphasised at a conference in London in 2008 in part of her speech the role of the head of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, who is in prison, as "a figure with whom many Kurds in Turkey identify”. Ms. Zana and her lawyer were not present when the sentence was pronounced.
Background information to the case of Leyla Zana
More than 70 years in prison – This punishment threatens the Kurdish human rights activist Leyla Zana from Diyarbakir/Turkey if all cases at present open end with legal sentences. On 28th July 2009 she was sentenced by Turkish judges in the penultimate instance to 15 months in prison. This is the punishment for Leyla Zana having emphasised at a conference in London in 2008 in part of her speech the role of the head of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, who is in prison, as "a figure with whom many Kurds in Turkey identify”. This sentence goes against all attempts at new Kurd politics in Turkey.
Leyla Zana was elected in 1991 for the Kurdish party HEP into the Turkish Parliament and said in her mother tongue Kurdish at the swearing-in ceremony: "I will do my best to ensure that the Kurdish and Turkish peoples can live together in a democratic framework.” Her mandate was thereupon withdrawn and in 1994 she was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Public and political pressure resulted in her being provisionally released from prison in 2004. The mother of two children has since then not had any peace. She is confronted with court cases because she relentlessly and fearlessly works for the cultural and political rights of the Kurds - a quarter of the population in Turkey. The most recent sentence on 4th December 2008 on the charge of belonging to a terrorist organisation was to ten years imprisonment. She has however not yet had to present herself for her prison sentence.
